Hackers Steal Thousands of Dollars in Cryptocurrency

If a large population kept most of their money in a bank, there would be a large chance that all of the population would lose money in the circumstance of a robbery. Although the currencies are different, this same logic applies to the internet. On Saturday, BlackWallet, a server and web-based wallet for virtual currencies, was hacked. The group responsible took approximately the equivalent of $400,000 in Stellar Lumens. Stellar Lumen is the eighth most popular cryptocurrency in the world.

The hackers were able to access individual wallets when users of BlackWallet signed in to their account. BlackWallet, when notified of the breach, attempted to alert their customers, but many still signed in to their accounts at the wrong time.

It is expected that the hackers have transferred the Stellar Lumens into another currency. By doing so, they are making it harder for them to be found, especially the cryptocurrency is not a public, open ledger. Orbit84, the alias of the developer of BlackWallet, has stated, “I am sincerely sorry about this and hope that we will get the funds back. I am in talks with my hosting provider to get as much information about the hacker and will see what can be done with it. If you ever entered your key on BlackWallet, you may want to move your funds to a new wallet”.

At a time where the value of cryptocurrencies are decreasing, this recent hack does not seem to help the situation. Although it is not a major virtual currency like Bitcoin or Ethereum, it shows a major flaw in allowing other servers to hold your crypto.